The invention relates generally to systems and methods for supplying communication service value.
With the expansion of the mobile telephone industry, and increased use of mobile telephones by everyday persons ranging from businessmen to teenagers, carriers must look to new and innovative business models for the services they provide. It has become common for mobile telephone carriers to offer service plans that provide the customer with a predetermined number of minutes within certain network restrictions for a fixed monthly fee.
However, an emerging market is that of prepaid service, otherwise known as pay as you go service. With prepaid service, customers have the freedom to choose when and how they will pay for wireless services. One disadvantage with prepaid service is that the service must be paid for in advance, which may cause problems if the customer needs service, but cannot get to an accessible point of sale to purchase the carrier time. Another disadvantage is that the prepaid services are carrier specific and the mechanisms to acquire more prepaid service are through the carriers. There is no central mechanism to acquire prepaid service that allows customers from different carriers to acquire service irregardless of their carrier.
The invention provides systems and methods for obtaining wireless service value, that overcome the disadvantages of known systems and methods while offering features not present in known systems and methods.